New filings entered on March 20 and March 21 in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted include documents explaining that the party’s appeal to the Sixth Circuit need not be decided immediately. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson issued a supplemental order on March 20, which says that if the Sixth Circuit reverses him and puts the statewide Libertarian candidates on the party’s primary ballot, there is ample time to do that.

This is because some counties in Ohio use touch-screen ballots. A name can be added to a ballot on a touch-screen computer only days before the election is to be held. The Ohio primary is May 6. Because there are no declared write-in candidates for Governor in the Ohio Libertarian primary (and it is too late for any to emerge now), and because Earl is the only candidate who filed a petition to be on the primary ballot, if his name is added to the electronic ballot shortly before the primary, he will the primary winner by default. He only needs one vote to be declared the victor. Normally, when a candidate is left off the ballot in most parts of the state, that is a serious blow; but in this case, it is not.

The attorney for the individual who challenged Earl’s petition filed a brief on March 21. That brief makes the same point, and says there is no time emergency. The brief also defends the constitutionality of the Ohio law that requires circulators to list their employer on each petition sheet. The challenger’s brief says that the privacy of circulators is not injured by that requirement, because anyone can always look at the candidate’s financial disclosure report and find out the name of the individual or group paying for the petition. But this argument cuts the other way. If the state’s interest in knowing who paid for the petitioning can be satisfied by the candidate’s disclosure report, why does the state also need this information on each petition sheet?

On March 20, Theodora “Tonie” Nathan died at the age of 91. She was the 1972 Libertarian nominee for vice-president, and because the Libertarian ticket received one electoral vote that year, she was the first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote. See this story.

The Ohio Green Party is asking voters to choose a Green Party primary ballot in May, and to write-in Anita Rios for Governor and Bob Fitrakis for Lieutenant Governor. The primary is May 6. If the ticket gets 500 write-ins in the primary, it will appear on the November ballot. The Green Party’s web page is asking voters to pledge to cast a write-in vote, and is hoping that such voters identify themselves in advance, so the party will know how it is doing. See this pledge form on the party’s web page.

Libertarians can’t nominate by write-in, for Governor, in the primary, because the deadline for filing as a declared write-in had already passed by the time the party’s candidate was removed from the primary ballot.

The other two ballot-qualified minor parties in Ohio, the Constitution Party and the Socialist Party, have no gubernatorial candidates this year.